The Hinterkaifeck Killer
}} The Hinterkaifeck Killer was a still-unidentified mass murderer and family annihilator who killed six people in Waidhofen, Bavaria, Germany, on March 31, 1922. Brief Case History Bizarre things occurred in and around Hinterkaifeck sometime before the murders. Six months earlier, the family maid quit; she said that she believed the place was haunted due to her hearing strange sounds. In addition, Andreas found an unfamiliar newspaper from Munich on his property. He did not remember buying it and concluded that the postman probably delivered it by mistake. However, nobody in the vicinity had ever subscribed to the paper. Days before the attack, he told his neighbors he had discovered footprints in the snow that led from the forest to a broken door lock in the farm's machine room. The tracks did not lead away from the house. Also, some of the family's house keys went missing around this time. During the night, the family heard footsteps in the attic, but Andreas was unable to find anyone. Despite telling people about the observations, he refused help; as such, the details went unreported to police. According to one of Cäzilia Gabriel's friends, she confided in her that Viktoria had fled from the farm the night before the murders after having a violent quarrel and was found in the woods hours later. The family had also noticed a mustached man standing at the forest's edge, staring at the house, apparently observing them. On March 31, 1922, the new maid, Maria Baumgartner, arrived at the farm, having been escorted by her sister. Apparently, in the late evening, Viktoria, her daughter, and her parents were lured to the barn through the stable, where they were then murdered one at a time. Whoever killed them used a mattock belonging to the family and struck them in the head (though Viktoria had first been stabbed in the face and Cäzilia Gruber was also strangled). The killer then moved into the living quarters and used the same weapon to murder the maid and Josef. On April 1, coffee sellers Hans Schirovsky and Eduard Schirovsky arrived in Hinterkaifeck to place an order. Although the machine house's gate was open, they assumed that no one was home, and so they departed. Cäzilia Gabriel was absent from school, and the family failed to show up for Sunday worship. On April 3, postman Josef Mayer was delivering mail at Hinterkaifeck. He noticed the mail from April 1 had gone untouched and that there was nobody in the yard. Assembler Albert Hofner went to Hinterkaifeck on April 4 to repair the engine of the food cropper. According to him, he had not seen the family, but he did hear animals inside the barn. After waiting an hour, he got to work, finishing the repair in 4.5 hours. At 2:30 PM in Gröbern, Hofner met up with the daughters of the village guide, Lorenz Schlittenbauer, and informed them that the repairs in Hinterkaifeck were complete. He also told the mayor of Wangen, Georg Greger, about how empty the place had felt. At 3:30 PM, Schlittenbauer sent his sons to Hinterkaifeck to see if they could make contact with the family. When they reported back to him that they did not see anyone, he headed to the farm with Michael Pöll and Jakob Sigl. Upon entering the barn, they discovered the bodies of Andreas, Cäzilia Gruber, Viktoria, and Cäzilia Gabriel. The bodies of the maid and Josef were found in the house. The initial investigations by the Munich Police Department were troublesome. People kept interacting with the crime scene, moving the bodies and items, sometimes even eating meals in the kitchen. A day after the victims were found, the autopsies were performed by court physician Johann Baptist Aumüller. Aside from discovering that a mattock was the murder weapon (even though it was not at the scene), it was also established Cäzilia Gabriel had been alive for several hours after the attack; she had pulled out tufts of her hair as she was dying. The skulls of the victims were removed and sent to Munich to be further examined, where they were presumably destroyed in World War II bombings by the Allied Powers. On April 8, the family and their maid were buried. Robbery was suspected of being the motive, but this theory was abandoned when it turned out nothing in the house had been stolen. Evidence revealed that whoever committed the murders had also been living on the property for several days afterwards — the cattle were fed, food was eaten, and neighbors reported seeing smoke coming from the chimney. Modus Operandi TBA Profile TBA Suspects TBA Known Victims All of the following were killed in Waidhofen, Bavaria * March 31, 1922: ** The barn killings: *** Viktoria Gabriel, 35 *** Cäzilia Gruber, 72 *** Andreas Gruber, 63 *** Cäzilia Gabriel, 7 ** The house killings: *** Maria Baumgartner, 44 *** Josef Gabriel, 2 On Criminal Minds TBA Sources *Wikipedia's article about the Hinterkaifeck murders Category:Real People Category:Real World Criminals Category:Real Life Killers Category:Deceased Real World Criminals Category:Unsolved Cases Category:Real Life Child Killers Category:Real Family Annihilators Category:Real Foreign Criminals Category:Real Life Mass Murderers Category:Unreferenced Criminals